Life changing event that will impact family

My name is Jennifer and my fiancé is Tom. We have been together for 6 years and have six children between us. Tom, Zachary, and one of Zachary’s friends headed to GA for a hunting trip on 12/9/2022.

On December 13, 2022 I received a call that I never saw coming from one of our kids stating something bad has happened. Zachary then informed me that Tom had fallen from his tree climber when the chain broke. He was roughly 25 to 30ft high. Immediately I knew our lives would be changed forever. As I was working when I received the call I went out of my patients room to tell my charge nurse that I would be leaving to head to the hospital he was at (4 hours away). He has shattered both his ankles as well as broken both tibia and fibula in both.

As you might imagine this is going to be a very long recovery and Tom’s life has changed forever. Thankfully he was able to get his one of many surgeries done today. They are placing external fixations on both ankles. If you look at what these look like it is bad.

I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted to ask for any help and when I realized just how many surgeries and equipment we will need for him in the house, I just couldn’t do it all on my own. The nurse in me says toughen up Jenn you got this, the other side of me says Jenn your going to need a lot of help. We are hopeful that he will be able to start apply pressure again on his feet in maybe 4-5 months. At least that’s what the doctors are hoping.

As you can imagine I will be missing a lot of work to help with my fiancé and Tom obviously will not be working for at least 6 months. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Update 12/18/2022

Tom has had one of his surgeries so far, which is called external fixators. These will stay on for 2-3 weeks and we will then discuss with doctors what the next steps are. His sisters have been extremely helpful through this whole process and by his side each day. Today will hopefully be the day we get to transfer him home. All depends on his pain control. All in all, we are all just so thankful he is alive and on his way to recovery. Tom is seriously one of the strongest men I know and I have a gut feeling he will surprise all of us with his recovery.  Only posting this one, as the other one is a little gruesome looking.

We decided not to transfer him to the house today instead, he will be going to a rehab. She needs around with that care and not that I can’t give it to him. It’s just that his pain is still a challenge. Looking forward to the day I can bring him home!